Seymour Kushner: Avid Audiophile
Defined as a person who takes a great interest in high quality sound and music, the word “audiophile” definitely describes Seymour Kushner. An audiophile goes beyond a mere music fan. Seymour has been known to go to extremes to achieve the best in-home audio experience. He relies only on high-end audio equipment to play the CDs and records in his impressive music collection.
As someone who works in the music industry, Seymour Kushner understands the value of pristine audio quality. He does not consider this “snobbish” or elitist. He does it out of respect for recording artists. Artists pay studios large sums of money for the privilege of access to state-of-the-art recording technology in order to produce the best sound. When that sound is played back on less than stellar equipment, that effort and expense is put to waste.
Seymour Kushner: Why MP3s Aren’t Good Enough
Many of us consider MP3 files to be a wonderful innovation. They increase our music’s portability and allow us to share music with our friends and even over the internet. However, to audiophiles like Seymour Kushner, this convenience comes at far too great a price. Loss of quality is inherent to the MP3 format. The creation of MP3 files damages the integrity of a song, giving the listener reduced quality audio. To a true audiophile, this is an unacceptable sacrifice.
Seymour Kushner: Issues with the MP3 Format
There are several aspects of the process of creating MP3s that contribute to their lower quality. Some of these contributing factors are:
- Compression: MP3s are small files. This convenient file size comes from compression. Compression occurs when data is “thrown out” during the conversion process. This makes MP3 a “lossy” format, or one in which data, and therefore audio quality, is lost.
- Bit Rate: Varying the bit rate changes how many bits per second can encode the file. A lower bitrate makes for a smaller file but compromises the audio quality. Higher bitrates can approximate the audio quality found on CDs or radio, but these files are larger.
- Flattening: MP3s tend to level out the pitch and volume in a song. This is called flattening. Many of the dynamic and complex facets of music occur in differences of pitch and volume, so this is another way in which MP3s can degrade your listening experience.

Seymour Kushner is a man who holds a couple of degrees, and has led a fairly successful life both academically and professionally. What might surprise you is that he is also an avid outdoor enthusiast—and that some of his adventures via motorcycle and jeep have spawned some truly amazing stories.
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